Aircraft have been used to transport and deliver various types of stores. Stores can include, but are not limited to, missiles, bombs, drones (e.g., unmanned aircrafts), weather probes, aid packages and so forth. As one may expect, the stores that any one aircraft can transport and deliver can vary in size, weight and geometrical configuration. In some arrangements, each store includes one or two lugs that are retained by a corresponding member of the aircraft during carriage of the store. To deliver the store, the lug is released to free the store from the aircraft.
In many situations, when the store is released from the aircraft for delivery to a target location, it is desirable that the store is ejected away from the aircraft with a slightly “nose down” orientation. In the past, such ejection has been accomplished with an explosive device, including cartridge actuated devices (CADs). However, the use of explosive ejection devices has inherent risks associated with the volatile nature of the device.
In addition, many conventional carriage and ejection mechanisms are arranged to interact with a single type of store. Therefore, if a different type of store than previously carried by the aircraft is to be carried by the aircraft, it may be necessary to change the carriage and ejection mechanism before the aircraft can accept the different type of store. Such a process can be time consuming and requires that at least one carriage and ejection mechanism for each type of store is available at the landing site of the aircraft.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an improved carriage and ejection assembly.